


My Ancient Mars

by LaFlashdrive



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-02
Updated: 2015-02-01
Packaged: 2018-03-10 02:13:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3272996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaFlashdrive/pseuds/LaFlashdrive
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the death of the dean, Silas is closed and the gang is forced to go back to their homes for the rest of the semester.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Ancient Mars

Henry Hollis was usually not a man who did well with surprises, and this letter was certainly a surprise. There inside the depths of the mailbox when he trudged out into the yard of snow in his overalls and ski mask was a card so formal and unsuspecting that Henry Hollis almost threw it away, almost assumed it to be another request for alumni donations.

**"Dear Parent. Your student no longer attends Silas University. For the remainder of the 2014-2015 school year, the university will be closed. Due to an unfortunate incident involving the deaths of the Dean of Students among several other core faculty members and scholarship recipients, the university and its affiliates have enacted a period of mourning, lasting in effect until the Fall 2015 term when new members of the Silas faculty and staff have been hired to ensure your child receives the highest quality education that they deserve.**

**Your student has several options at this point. They may:**

**1: Transfer to a sister school with no additional tuition fees, expenses, or deduction of student benefits.**

**2: Apply for a Summer Abroad program, preferably to another of Silas University's affiliate schools located in several continents around the globe.**

**3: Return home until the Fall of 2015 when the school reopens and your student is able to resume all scheduled classes. Tuition for the Spring 2015 term will be reimbursed in this case."**

This was the first Mr. Hollis was hearing of the tragedy at Silas, but he knew instantly what Laura's decision would be, if only because he would forbid her from even thinking about the other two options. No daughter of Henry was leaving Austria for any spring or summer abroad programs. Laura Hollis was coming right back home until Fall.

He picked up his keys from the kitchen table without calling ahead. 

////

Perry and LaFontaine waited patiently at the bus stop. It felt weird to know that they were only here for LaF. 

It was hard for the both of them to accept the fact that they weren’t carpooling together. They always carpooled. Hell, they’d moved into Silas on the same day with the same car carrying all of their stuff for their shared dorm.

That wasn’t really an option right now, though. One of Perry’s brothers had taken the family van to drive all his friends to the Alps to go skiing for winter break. There was no way there would be room for both LaFontaine and all of Perry’s stuff in the Perrys’ little two door sedan that her mom usually used for work. Perry was making the trek back home alone with her parents and LaFontaine was taking the bus because there was no way their mom was getting out in all this ice to come pick them up.

They’d be without each other for hours, and that hadn’t happened since LaFontaine had been pod-peopled.

Perry sighed and LaFontaine hiked their bag further up on their shoulder as they both spotted the bus arriving in the distance. The whole mood in the terminal shifted as everyone grabbed their bags and anxiously tapped their feet on the icy cement. There were so many people waiting to be picked up that there was a mutual understanding that some of them may have to wait until the next bus just because there wasn’t enough room. No one particularly wanted to lose the race to board this one. It was too cold outside to sit here any longer.

LaFontaine thought about offering to stay behind. They wouldn’t really mind another fifteen minutes with Perry.

On second thought, though, they didn’t really want to see Mr. and Mrs. Perry’s guilty faces when they came to pick up their daughter and couldn’t afford to take home her best friend too. The Perrys had been looking at LaFontaine differently ever since they cut their hair the first time, ever since the two of them had gone through a lot of paperwork in freshman year to insure that they were dormed together for the entire four years of their college experience. LaFontaine didn’t want to admit it, but they didn’t really want to spend two hours in a car with Perry’s family anymore. Not in the way they used to want to.

“I guess I’ll see you at home,” Perry said to them as the crowd dispersed around them, filed onto the bus like soldiers reporting to their posts.

The way Perry said ‘home’ made LaFontaine flinch. Silas was their home now – to LaFontaine anyway. Silas was where LaFontaine had lived year round for the last three years. Silas was where LaFontaine could be themselves. LaF didn’t correct Perry, though. Just nodded. “Yeah. I’ll see you in a bit.”

There was more room on the bus than they thought. Empty seats stared back at them. They had no excuse to stay behind.

////

Of all the terminals in the building. Of course the one for the flight to Toronto had to be next to the one for the flight to Minneapolis. And of course Kirsch had to sit next to her as they both waited for their planes.

“I always forget you’re American,” Danny started, making small talk with Kirsch now that there was nothing else to do. She’d finished her paperback an hour ago. “It explains a lot.”

Kirsch smiled. “A lot about how awesome I am?”

Danny rolled her eyes. “A lot about why you think you’re awesome.”

“Whatevs,” Kirsch dismissed. “You’re just jealous you guys don’t play football in Canada.”

Danny wanted to say something about how if Canadians did play American football she’d be better at it than him, but that would mean that Kirsch was right about her wanting to play football and being jealous that she couldn’t. Instead she said, “We do have football. It’s called soccer in your - wrong,” she stressed, “vocabulary.”

“You know what I mean,” Kirsch drawled. “You guys can’t play soccer in the middle of winter, though,” he snapped.

“You can’t play football either.”

Touché.

Kirsch went silent.

“See?” Danny challenged. “Don’t talk bad about Canada when Minnesota could practically be another province.”

Danny seemed pleased with herself, but Kirsch wasn’t entirely sure why. She hadn’t really understood his point. Maybe she shouldn’t have skipped lunch and opted to eat on the plane instead. Her flight was delayed, and the lack of nourishment must have been affecting her critical thinking skills.

“I wasn’t dissing Canada!” he defended. “I’d never mock you guys. You have, like, free health care and maple syrup.”

Danny thought about giving him a lecture on Canadian history for the next two hours while she waited for her flight, but Kirsch kept going without her, apparently not needing to know more about Canada than its beloved tree sap to deduce that it was a pretty cool place.

“I’m thinking about doing a study abroad there in fact,” he announced proudly.

Danny’s eyebrows raised. “You’re seriously going to spend a semester long break going to school? I didn’t peg you for the type.”

Kirsch shrugged, not disagreeing with her. “My mom says it’ll be good for me to keep busy over the spring and summer. Maybe I’ll get a soccer scholarship.”

Danny scoffed. “Not if you keep calling it soccer.” Kirsch huffed and crossed two beefy arms over an equally beefy chest, and Danny noted that he worked out his upper body far more than his lower. Anyone could see that he wasn’t fit to play soccer.

She placed a gentle hand on his bulging bicep. “Don’t worry, though. I’m sure you’ll get into summer school. All that practice you had with it in high school will look great on your applications.”

Kirsch glared like the sun was in his eyes and dark war paint was on his cheeks, but when he opened his mouth to speak, the overhead announcer spoke for him, detailing the list of arrivals. He smiled smugly. “And there’s my flight,” he bragged. “Have fun sitting here with your little dollar store romance novel for the next two hours.”

Danny wanted to say something, chew him out one last time, but she had been reading a bad romance novel and Kirsch had all his bags strapped to his back before she could find the right words to dig into him with.

“Smell you in eight months!” he cried cheerfully.

Danny opened her book to page one out of spite.

////

Carmilla had expected a lot of things when she came home. She expected her mother’s house to feel different now that she was dead. She expected her mother’s house to be quiet now that nobody lived in it. She expected the curtains to be dusty and the furniture to be out of date, and she expected she’d have to go on a hunt soon to restock the refrigerator.

She did not expect all of the eyes. Dozens of them. Staring right at her from the living room window.


End file.
